Author: Ritthy Sanders

Compared to other high school sports like soccer and baseball, American football is a high contact endeavor that pits some of the biggest athletes against each other. Every game is full of tackles, cuts, and jumps that truly test the physical conditioning of every athlete. With practices lasting many hours and games occurring multiple times a week, high school football players are under stress for a majority of the time. Even when supplemented with a healthy diet, playing football competitively for a long time can cause some serious health problems. Many regional conferences are enforcing stricter safety rules and regulations to allow for more longevity from their athletes.

Concussions

Concussions, especially in football, are becoming more commonplace. Tackles are frequently helmet-to-helmet, delivering powerful blows to athlete heads and necks. Despite innovations made to safety equipment and uniforms, this type of play shouldn’t be continued. High performing players typically don’t stop until the end of their college careers, while the elite continue to play at the professional level. This means that the risk of head trauma, especially among players that play along the line of scrimmage, increases steadily as players progress. As previously discussed, high school and college federations have offered several solutions to this problem. The issue is that, fundamentally, football is a game of high intensity and speed. Just training for elite levels of the game puts an unreal amount of stress on the body. With teenagers with plans to play even higher levels of ball, this can prove to be detrimental. Concussions are nothing to joke about, putting many people in hospitals throughout the country. The funniest part of it is that many of these problems arise from patients knowingly putting themselves in danger.

Muscle Tears

Many running backs and wide receivers are also victims of ACL muscle tears. These medical issues occur when a muscle that is overused (usually from practicing non stop) is subject to cuts at high accelerations. The best players are the ones that usually play and react explosively, which means that they are at a higher risk when it comes to tearing muscles. ACL tears are very serious, putting players out of commission for entire seasons. That is why it is vital for players to get take care of their bodies by getting enough sleep and eating enough healthy foods. For kids that plan on going pro, this kind of attention is necessary to make sure that they get the most out of their training.

Coaches, in theory, should be the individuals that are most attentive to the health of their athletes. They are in charge of all of the training regimens and see the kids practice. Injuries play a huge role in the way that these teams play – planning around potential no shows due to torn muscles and concussions is a part of the game. There are many instances where the pressure to win drives coaches to play teenagers that are clearly not fit for intense physical activity, which is another problem that needs to be addressed.

For both public and private high school organizations, sports programs tend to bring in the most money. In bigger states, these funds can be budget setting or breaking because of the popularity of football, baseball, and basketball. In order to retain fan attendance, many schools invest a lot of their capital into producing the best sports teams that they can. This not only brings in a significant amount of revenue, but it also drives students to perform well enough academically to participate on these sports teams. It can also be argued that sports can drive some students to be more mature with their decisions because of the fundamental maturity to play sports at a high level.

Producing top-level football players also generates massive attention from the media. Top preparatory schools, like Mater Dei in California, and IMG Academy in Florida, are frequently discussed topics by the media in the football word. These kinds of schools make it their duty to produce intelligent athletes that are destined to play in Division One college football programs. This requires them to invest a lot of time and money into not only their sports programs, but also their academic ones. These kids, in order to compete, must attend rigorous class sessions that prepare them for college academics in the future. Without these programs, it would be tough for a player that is engineered to only play football to keep up with their schoolwork post high school. It’s a stressful process, but it would be silly to deny that it produces results.

Many high schools also utilize fundraising and booster programs to cushion some of the costs of their football expenses. These programs are even handled by parents of the players, who do it willingly for free. Funding generated from these programs is used to buy team uniforms, helmets, practice gear, and extra benefits for the players to improve their game. Every dollar invested is 2 dollars earned, a method that has been tested to work for decades for high schools of all shapes and sizes.

Some parents of high school students disagree with the massive amounts of funding that these football teams receive. Despite school budgets reflecting a high priority in sports, the function of a high school is traditionally to provide a high quality education program. With a lot of the money going to football field renovations rather than desks and textbooks, students often complain that high school sports programs siphon away money from the important things. It is probably best to achieve a balance that not only accommodates high-test scores, but also generates a high influx of sports revenues. It is also imperative that kids have outlets away from school, even if the level of play at their school isn’t at the elite level. High school sports have been alleviating stress for years, giving students the opportunity to follow passions outside of their schoolwork. Football programs often form strong bonds of camaraderie amongst the teammates; many teammates stay friends for years to come.

Got any questions about budgets for your high school football program? Jump over to my contact form!

High School football has changed a lot since my time. Training regimens have become tougher, equipment has become better. But nothing compares to the old days of my time when I was on the field, and all we had was our wit and ability.

I decided to start this website to share past experiences of High School football with the younger generation as well as share new experience, latest training techniques, high school football rankings, and overall just to discuss football! I would love to hear from you, so if you have a high school football story to share, jump over to THIS page. And, if you just feel like chatting about some football, you are welcome to go over to my contact form.